Let the 1,000 lashings of Saudi liberal blogger Raif Badawi begin. Gulp. Right after the French magazine Charlie Hebdo was gutted by radical Islamists angry about their prophet being defamed. How many more hints do I need? I must begin my journey off the grid.
Make my phone number private. Contact address? Who needs to know? Paypal address? Send me a personal check. Hey, I know who you are, but who’s your friend over there?
It isn’t a safe world for a liberal blogger anymore.
But hey: At least in America, no matter how (kinda) heated things seem to sometimes get between the green and blue and red and rainbow factions, at least we’re still mostly comfortable in a melting pot and not lashing people when they say they’re through with their religion and/or sick of living under dynastic rule derived from fossil fuel riches. Right?
On Friday, immediately following prayers at a nearby mosque, the husband and father of three, his wrists and ankles chained, was led into public square in the port city of Jiddah, then flogged 50 times in front of his fellow citizens, an anonymous witness told an AP reporter. His family is watching his ordeal on the news from Canada.
The witness said that Badawi, who’s been imprisoned since the middle of 2012, didn’t cry or make any noises during the lashings. He kept his eyes closed. He might be cried out by now, of course. You can’t just create a blog called Free Saudi Liberals, lambasting Saudi Arabia’s clerics and their radically conservative brand of Islam called Wahhabism – and not get all these public (and private?) lashings, 10 years in prison and a $226,600 USD fine. What was he expecting? Here’s his blog?-?you be the judge.
For 20 weeks straight, Badawi will endure 50 lashings, each lasting about 15 minutes. The human rights community is characterizing this display, in the recent wake of the Arab Spring, as a violation of freedom of speech by way of a message to citizens about what’s to come if anyone else decides to get all . . . ?oh, how did the court describe the reason why he’s being punished? Oh yes: According to al-Jazeera, he was acting ?LIBERAL.?
The United States, United Nations and every major rights organization is hitting the roof. Human Rights Watch?(HRW)?is calling for three actions:
- Immediately free anyone held for exercising free expression; stop prosecuting others.
- Issue penal code and associations law.
- Amend existing laws to allow free expression and independent groups.
In a 48-page report released yesterday, HRW states that, rather than allow for a public discussion of ways to make society better for all, Saudi authorities are currently more accustomed to “arresting, prosecuting and attempting to silence rights defenders and to quash their calls for change.?
But the report also notes how movements aiming to improve freedom and democracy in Saudi Arabia are growing strong due to various social media outlets, where organizations not only can take form but share ideas and strategize. Internet access is available for about half of the Saudi population now too, HRW estimates, and this has allowed citizens to become more informed about world affairs. According to Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy director for the Middle East:
??The Saudi authorities think they can use intimidation and prison terms to stop the criticism, but the activists are finding ways to voice their concerns until they are heard.?
Those Saudi authorities do have a powerful hammer to hurl, though, whenever needed. Without a written penal code, the country’s judges can mete out sentences based on their own personal interpretations of Islam. Moreso, human rights activists and other political prisoners are regularly shuffled off to the country’s Specialized Criminal Court and tried as terrorists. According to HRW:
?This court sometimes denies defendants the most basic fair trial guarantees, including the right to a lawyer, and passes sentences in closed proceedings. In addition to trials on arbitrary charges, the Interior Ministry regularly bans activists from foreign travel for extended periods without providing advance notification or specifying reasons. Activists such as al-Khair discovered they were banned from travel only as they attempted to board a flight.?
It’s for all these reasons, Stork said, that rights workers are so flabbergasted about Saudi Arabia’s recent election to the U.N. Human Rights Council. That, he says:
?? sends the wrong message to local activists facing government sanction for their peaceful human rights work. Other countries should tell Saudi Arabia that it needs to improve its rights record, especially by letting independent activists work without government interference.?
Governments across the globe have done just that. To no avail, thus far. The State Department just labeled the punishment ?inhumane.? And on Friday, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said in his daily briefing that he was ?deeply concerned? about Badawi’s punishment:
???Saudi Arabia has ratified the Convention Against Torture, (which) in its last review of Saudi Arabia in 2002 noted its concern at the sentencing to and imposition of corporal punishment, such as flogging, by Saudi judicial and administrative authorities that are not in conformity with the Convention….
??Mr.?Badawi, an online blogger and activist, was arrested, tried and convicted for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and freedom of belief.? The Human Rights Office has previously raised its concerns at harsh sentences imposed by the Saudi authorities against human rights defenders for peacefully promoting human rights.?
Key point here is that Saudi Arabia ratified the Convention Against Torture 12 years ago. Much, apparently, has changed in that time.
Now, as everyone obviously knows, in Saudi Arabia and far abroad: Apostasy hurts.
Back in spring, Badawi and women’s rights activist Suad al-Shammari, who co-founded the Free Saudi Liberals online network, declared May 7 a ?day of liberalism.? Pretty much ever since both have lived in fear of the death penalty. And now: Let the lashings begin.
Yikes. If you need me, place leave a message and I’ll get back to you after the bomb shelter’s done.
PHOTO CREDIT: Raif Badawi’s Facebook page
